Instagrammatics and digital methods: Studying visual social media, from selfies and GIFs to memes and emoji

Visual content is a critical component of everyday social media, on platforms explicitly framed around the visual (Instagram and Vine), on those offering a mix of text and images in myriad forms (Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr), and in apps and profiles where visual presentation and provision of information are important considerations. However, despite being so prominent in forms such as selfies, looping media, infographics, memes, online videos, and more, sociocultural research into the visual as a central component of online communication has lagged behind the analysis of popular, predominantly text-driven social media. This paper underlines the increasing importance of visual elements to digital, social, and mobile media within everyday life, addressing the significant research gap in methods for tracking, analysing, and understanding visual social media as both image-based and intertextual content. In this paper, we build on our previous methodological considerations of Instagram in isolation to examine further questions, challenges, and benefits of studying visual social media more broadly, including methodological and ethical considerations. Our discussion is intended as a rallying cry and provocation for further research into visual (and textual and mixed) social media content, practices, and cultures, mindful of both the specificities of each form, but also, and importantly, the ongoing dialogues and interrelations between them as communication forms.

Memes pluralistas práticas linguístico-midiáticas em fenômenos bilíngues: um estudo sistêmico-funcional e multimodal sobre propagação via corpora digitais

Investigou-se pelo presente estudo se a concepção presente na Teoria de Replicadores, expressa através do conceito de meme (DAWKINS, 1979), poderia ser um modelo compatível para explicar a propagação de memes no substrato das mídias sociais. No âmbito dos estudos locais, Recuero (2006) sugeriu uma transdução desse modelo, baseando-se nas concepções de Dawkins (1979). Refletindo sobre o posicionamento epistemológico de Recuero (2006), o presente trabalho, baseando-se em Dennett (1995), Blackmore (2002) e Tyler (2011b; 2013b), procedeu às instâncias de Análise Conceitual e Composicional dessa transdução. A partir do conceito de memeplexo (BLACKMORE, 2002), esta pesquisa de base linguística (HALLIDAY, 1987) entende os memes, no substrato das mídias digitais/sociais, como práticas de produção e distribuição linguístico-midiáticas, propaladas a partir de diversas unidades de propagação e das relações criadas pelos internautas nesse processo de transmissão. Investigando tais relações, a partir da instância de Análise Relacional, propõe-se examinar duas unidades de propagação. Expressões meméticas (Que deselegante e #Tenso) e imagens meméticas (oriundas do fenômeno memético Nana em desastres). Integram este estudo dois corpora de expressões meméticas (5275 postagens oriundas ou redirecionadas para o Twitter.com total de 83.655 palavras/tokens) e um corpus bilíngue (Português/Inglês) de imagens meméticas (um total de 134 imagens oriundas do Tumblr.com e Facebook.com). Para analisar os corpora de expressões meméticas utilizou-se a metodologia de Linguística de Corpus (BERBER-SARDINHA, 2004; SHEPHERD, 2009; SOUZA JÚNIOR, 2012, 2013b, 2013c). Para a análise do corpus multimodal de imagens meméticas, utilizou-se a metodologia que chamamos de Análise Propagatória. Objetivamos verificar se essas unidades de propagação e as práticas linguístico-midiáticas que estas transmitem, evoluiriam somente devido a aspectos memético-midiáticos, conforme Recuero (2006) apontara, e com padrão de propagação internalista (DAWKINS, 1979; 1982). Após análise dos dados, revelou-se que, ao nível do propósito, os fenômenos locais investigados não evoluíram por padrão internalista (ou homogêneo) de propagação. Tais padrões revelam ser de natureza externalista (ou heterogênea). Ademais, constatou-se que princípios constitutivos meméticos de evolução como os de fecundidade, longevidade (DAWKINS 1979; 1982) e o de design (DENNETT, 1995), junto com o princípio midiático de evolução de alcance (RECUERO, 2006) mantiveram-se presentes com alto grau de influencia nas propagações de natureza externalista. Por outro lado, o princípio memético da fidelidade (DAWKINS, 1979; 1982) foi o que menos influenciou esses padrões de propagação. Neutralizando a fidelidade, e impulsionados pelo princípio de design, destacaram-se nesse processo evolutivo os princípios linguísticos sistematizadores revelados por este estudo. Isto é: o princípio da funcionalidade (memes evoluem porque podem indicar propósitos diferentes) e o princípio do alcance linguístico (memes podem ser direcionados a itens animados/ inanimados; para internautas em idioma nativo/ estrangeiro)

Qual o papel dos memes na discussão política

Os pesquisadores analisaram como as opiniões políticas nas redes sociais se comportam em dias normais e em dias de discussão política mais acirrada, como por exemplo na data da votação do impeachment de Dilma Roussef na Câmara dos Deputados.

Petit dictionnaire de nos grandes girouettes, d'apres elles-memes, biographies politiques contemporaines.

Mode of access: Internet.

An?lisis cr?tico de las pr?cticas letradas vern?culas de un grupo de j?venes de grado once de un colegio p?blico de Cali: El caso de los memes en Facebook [recurso electr?nico]

RESUMEN: En este trabajo de investigaci?n se presentan los resultados de una indagaci?n sobre las relaciones existentes entre las pr?cticas letradas vern?culas y las pr?cticas letradas acad?micas que se originan en la publicaci?n de memes en una p?gina de Facebook por parte de estudiantes de grado once en una instituci?n p?blica de la ciudad de Cali. En este escrito se analiza el papel que juegan los memes como texto multimodal en una red social y como en su uso se muestran las tensiones de los sujetos informantes frente al mundo escolar. En el estudio se hace un seguimiento a las profundas transformaciones en los modos de leer y escribir como resultado de las tecnolog?as digitales y las redes sociales, y que a trav?s de los discursos multimodales los sujetos construyen nuevas formas de leer el mundo escolar. El corpus est? constituido por el an?lisis de 10 memes y una serie de entrevistas en profundidad a 6 informantes que fueron grabadas y transcritas siguiendo el modelo de an?lisis del discurso cr?tico. El estudio de corte cualitativo-etnogr?fico arroja como resultados que los j?venes de grado once de una instituci?n p?blica ven tensionadas sus pr?cticas escolares por las pr?cticas de tipo institucional.

An?lisis cr?tico del discurso de los memes alusivos al debate sobre paramilitarismo (2014) del Congreso de la Rep?blica de Colombia [recurso electr?nico]

El meme es un tipo de Texto Multimodal que puede ser compuesto por im?genes, ilustraciones est?ticas, o fotos digitalizadas de figuras humanas, animales u objetos, que representan una intenci?n o gesto humor?stico en relaci?n con un texto escrito concreto, adherido a la imagen. Esta composici?n de im?genes y palabras tiene como fin expresar a trav?s del dibujo o personaje, una posici?n o visi?n sat?rica ante una situaci?n descrita y contextualizada en lenguaje escrito; aquello entrev? una narrativa en torno a acontecimientos sociales vigentes. El Debate sobre paramilitarismo que tuvo lugar en el Congreso de la Rep?blica de Colombia a mediados del a?o 2014, gener? durante su transcurso una amplia producci?n y difusi?n de memes en las redes sociales, en los que se evidenciaron las distintas reacciones que produjeron en los colombianos, las situaciones y sucesos desarrollados en el Debate. Desde la perspectiva del An?lisis del Discurso, se analiz? una muestra que const? de cuatro memes para determinar su naturaleza enunciativa y su rol como veh?culo de opini?n.

Circulación de memes en WhatsApp: ambivalencias del humor desde la perspectiva de género

La aplicación WhatsApp se ha convertido en todo un fenómeno social. Todo el mundo se relaciona por WhatsApp, enviando mensajes multimedia y, en ocasiones, memes. Piezas verbo-visuales surgidas en la cultura digital y que pretenden la risa de sus receptores. Este artículo explora un repertorio de memes capturados durante seis meses en un grupo de WhatsApp, formado por mujeres asalariadas con edades comprendidas entre 50 y 55 años. El análisis comienza con una caracterización de la gramática del meme tipo para, a continuación, examinar las temáticas e interpretar el sentido de los contenidos humorísticos distribuidos. Los resultados sugieren que el humor es algo más que divertimento y que la risa también está mediada por la estructura social, desprendiendo destellos de una cultura que mantiene sesgos de género, orientados indistintamente a mujeres y hombres.

Memes als moderne Bildungsmedien: Humor als Medium pädagogischer Interaktion zur Wissenskonstruktion im Physikunterricht

Memes stellen ein modernes Bildmedium dar. Im Beitrag wird die Frage verfolgt, ob Memes mit ihrem inhärenten Humor innerhalb des Unterrichts auch als Bildungsmedium dienen und didaktisch genutzt werden können. Dazu wird Humor als generalisiertes Kommunikationsmedium pädagogischer Interaktion beschrieben, um Memes als moderne Bildmedien - in ihrer Wirkung als humorvolle Form der affektiven und kognitiven Inkongruenzstiftung - zur Entwicklung von Fachkonzepten im Physikunterricht fassen zu können. (DIPF/Orig.)

Sounds of the suburb

Sounds of the Suburb was a commissioned public art proposal based upon a brief set by Queensland Rail for the major redevelopment at their Brunswick Street Railway Station, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. I proposed a large scale, electronic artwork to be distributed across the glass fronted structure of their station’s new concourse building. It was designed as a network of LED based ‘tracking’ - along which would travel electronically animated, ‘trains’ of text synchronised to the actual train timetables. Each message packet moved endlessly through a complex spatial network of ‘tracks’ and ‘stations’ set both inside, outside and via the concourse. The design was underpinned by large scale image of sound waves etched onto the architecture’s glass and was accompanied by two inset monitors each presenting ghosted images of passenger movements within the concourse, time-delay recorded and then cross-combined in realtime to form new composites.----- Each moving, reprogrammable phrase was conceived as a ‘train of thought’ and ostensibly contained an idea or concept about popular cultures surrounding contemporary music – thereby meeting the brief that the work should speak to the diverse musical cultures central to Fortitude Valley’s image as an entertainment hub. These cultural ‘memes’, gathered from both passengers and the music press were situated alongside quotes from philosophies of networking, speed and digital ecologies. These texts would continually propagate, replicate and cross fertlise as they moved throughout the ‘network’, thereby writing a constantly evolving ‘textual soundcape’ of that place. This idea was further cemented through the pace, scale and rhythm of passenger movements continually recorded and re-presented on the smaller screens.

Suzumushi : the silent swarm

This silent swarm of stylized crickets is downloading data from Internet and catalogue searches being undertaken by the public at the State Library Queensland. These searches are being displayed on the screen on their backs. Each cricket downloads the searches and communicates this information with other crickets. Commonly found searches spread like a meme through the swarm. In this work memes replace the crickets’ song, washing like a wave through the swarm and changing on the whim of Internet users. When one cricket begins calling others, the swarm may respond to produce emergent patterns of text. When traffic is slow or of now interest to the crickets, they display onomatopoeia. The work is inspired by R. Murray Schafer’s research into acoustic ecologies. In the 1960’s Schafer proposed that many species develop calls that fit niches within their acoustic environment. An increasing background of white noise dominates the acoustic environment of urban human habitats, leaving few acoustic niches for other species to communicate. The popularity of headphones and portable music may be seen as an evolution of our acoustic ecology driven by our desire to hear expressive, meaningful sound, above the din of our cities. Similarly, the crickets in this work are hypothetical creatures that have evolved to survive in a noisy human environment. This speculative species replaces auditory calls with onomatopoeia and information memes, communicating with the swarm via radio frequency chirps instead of sound. Whilst these crickets cannot make sound, each individual has been programmed respond to sound generated by the audience, by making onomatopoeia calls in text. Try talking to a cricket, blowing on its tail, or making other sounds to trigger a call.

"Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal": Cultural practices of repetition in visual social media

Looping media are recurring components of online content, from gifs to Vine videos, in addition to the conceptual repetition of memes and related practices. This paper analyses practices around looping visual media as examples of vernacular creativity, social media literacies, and internet culture, especially for irreverent and playful purposes. Focusing on the LGBTQ digital cultural context as a pilot study, this research examines multi-platform uses of looping media, including personal narratives through Vine videos and animated gifs on Tumblr. In addition to textual analysis of LGBTQ looping visual social media content, the study will further explore the platform context as part of the experience of looped media. The research will address how these factors may also contribute to practices of irreverence and play, both within the specific case of LGBTQ culture and internet culture more generally.

Social Media and Everyday Politics

From selfies and memes to hashtags and parodies, social media are used for mundane and personal expressions of political commentary, engagement, and participation. The coverage of politics reflects the social mediation of everyday life, where individual experiences and thoughts are documented and shared online. In Social Media and Everyday Politics, Tim Highfield examines political talk as everyday occurrences on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Tumblr, Instagram, and more. He considers the personal and the political, the serious and the silly, and the everyday within the extraordinary, as politics arises from seemingly banal and irreverent topics. The analysis features international examples and evolving practices, from French blogs to Vines from Australia, via the Arab Spring, Occupy, #jesuischarlie, Eurovision, #blacklivesmatter, Everyday Sexism, and #illridewithyou. This timely book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars in media and communications, internet studies, and political science, as well as general readers keen to understand our contemporary media and political contexts.

The culture digitally festival of memeology: An introduction

The collection of essays set to roll out on Culture Digitally over the next month began its life as a pair of panels spanning the last two annual meetings of the International Communication Association. At the 2014 meetings in Seattle, Washington and the 2015 meetings in San Juan, Puerto Rico, various configurations of the contributors in this collection met to discuss the cultures and communicative practices associated with internet memes and viral media. Our shared goal was to bring smart people together to start to think about these digital media genres—still emerging only a few years ago and now seemingly ubiquitous—above the level of the individual example. Together, we asked questions about how internet memes and viral media might be defined, their roles in popular culture, their relationships to far older scientific and scholarly traditions, and their public implications. Two years and two discussions that ended too quickly later, we decided to write up some of our key arguments from the panels. We’ve compiled these write-ups here, in what we’ve taken to calling “The Culture Digitally Festival of Memeology.” - See more at: http://culturedigitally.org/2015/10/00-the-culture-digitally-festival-of-memeology-an-introduction-ryan-m-milner-jean-burgess/#sthash.2KzDogso.dpuf

Save Left Shark: Katy Perry, Intellectual Property, and 3D Printing

There has been much interest in how intellectual property law, policy and practice will adapt to the emergence of 3D printing and the maker movement. Intellectual property lawyers will have to grapple with the impact of additive manufacturing upon a variety of forms of intellectual property — including copyright law, trade mark law, designs law, patent law and trade secrets. The disruptive technology of 3D printing will both pose opportunities and challenges for legal practitioners and policy makers.A performance by pop princess Katy Perry at the 2015 Super Bowl has sparked a public controversy over intellectual property, internet memes and 3D printing.